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Susanna and the Elders

This is one of Gentileschi’s earliest works and certainly the only painting of this subject done by a woman who experienced rape and the torture during the subsequent trial. The subject is framed quite closely, simply a bench where a nude woman sits recoiling from two men who lean over a wall. Susanna’s gestures indicate more horror than many other treatments of this topic and Gentileschi achieves an emotional power by stripping down the scene and focusing on victimization.

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